The report describes the family payments system (with a focus on family tax benefits and child care fee assistance) and analyses how the multiple programs overlap. It also explores how the phenomenon of... Read More

Following the global financial crisis, the incumbent Labor government introduced policies that reduced the job search requirements for people on unemployment benefits. As a result, there are now around... Read More

Has the Fair Work Act thrown industrial relations back to ‘the bad old days?’ This report analyses the changes in industrial relations reform over the past 20 years and assesses the role in which each... Read More

Examines the economic case for compulsory superannuation contributions and questions whether compulsory super is the most effective way of promoting household and national saving and reducing future demands... Read More

The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) has been touted as the biggest social reform since Medicare. Currently, there is only a naive understanding of the scheme. This report makes the case that... Read More

Australia should not spend $40 billion to repeat the mistakes of the Collins Class submarine. Nuclear submarines, such as the US Navy’s Virginia Class submarine, would provide a much greater capability... Read More

In an ever-tightening fiscal environment, the focus of NSW health policy must be the microeconomic reform of the rigid, public service monopoly model of public hospital care. The adoption of market or... Read More

Indigenous Education 2012 reviews the lack of progress by states and territories in improving Indigenous literacy and numeracy. It examines causes of Indigenous students’ success and failure, and the... Read More

This paper considers the arguments for and against greater use of a sovereign wealth fund in Australia. It argues that the existing Future Fund is unnecessary and that greater use of a sovereign wealth... Read More

Government influences price levels in more ways than is immediately apparent. Through its direct and indirect interventions in the market, government is one of the most important price drivers in Australia... Read More

To successful reduce the number of pensioners on disability support, policymakers must apply the lessons of other welfare reforms. Disability pensioners must be categorised based on their ability to work;... Read More

The long-run relationship between population growth and living standards has been a source of controversy among economists. This monograph examines three perspectives on the issue and argues that population... Read More

Australia’s migrants are extremely well integrated by international standards, particularly Europe. The reason why multiculturalism works better in Australia than in Europe may be Australia’s more... Read More

To understand the effects of a growing population on Australia’s councils, CIS surveyed local authorities from all over the country. The results are alarming. The level of frustration with inadequate... Read More

New Zealand’s proposed liquor legislation marks a return to old attitudes towards alcohol regulation that perversely believe, in part due to dubious economic analyses, that placing restrictions on access,... Read More

This paper examines some of the stylised facts in relation to the growth of government in the Western world generally, and Australia in particular. It then reviews some of the main theories advanced to... Read More

In the 2010 federal elections, the debate over Australia’s population surfaced once again. Groups concerned with the impacts of a growing population have focused on the life source of any settlement:... Read More

Since the publication of the 2010 Intergenerational Report, Australia has been debating its demographic future and whether it is desirable for the nation to grow to more than 35 million people by 2050.... Read More

Robert Carling says the reform agenda for personal income tax should be to cut marginal tax rates; implement automatic indexation of thresholds for inflation; scale back the myriad selective tax breaks... Read More

Professor Helen Hughes, Senior Research Fellow at the CIS and Mark Hughes highlight that Indigenous non-labour force participation is a much greater problem than unemployment.
‘Indigenous unemployment... Read More

The National Health and Hospital Reform Commission (NHHRC) has acknowledged the need to ensure health services are responsive to the needs of patients, and has recommended some very limited market-based... Read More

The implications of the Ralph Capital Gains Tax (CGT) reforms vary widely depending on the type of taxpayer, asset class, and inflation environment. This report examines the CGT and considers possible... Read More

The paper outlines the rationale for fiscal responsibility legislation and a rules-based approach to fiscal policy. It examines the shortcomings of the existing CBH, showing how it has failed to prevent... Read More

The monograph considers some of the practical problems that are likely to be encountered in implementing an activist approach to asset prices. These difficulties help explain why historical attempts to... Read More

Wolfgang Kasper argues that the hospital malaise can only be remedied by removing the central, bureaucratic control of hospitals and creating opportunities for spontaneous, decentralised and customer-oriented... Read More

The regulatory environment that governs community pharmacy has created one of Australia’s most protected industries. It is a beneficiary of government largesse and central regulation and control in state,... Read More

Stephen Kirchner offers a timely analysis of Australia’s foreign investment regime and gives his ideas on how to improve this critical ingredient for Australia's prospective stability, prosperity, and... Read More

Dr Jeremy Sammut examines the evidence for preventive care programs to help make the Medicare system sustainable, given the demands of the ageing of Australia’s population, the rising chronic disease... Read More

This paper analyses the state taxation issues in further detail. After reviewing various reform options, it outlines the key features of what a much improved state tax system would look like. Read More

Sinclair Davidson in this paper canvasses an issue that cuts across all taxes and all levels of government: fiscal illusion and how it contributes to the growth of the state. Exposing the policies and... Read More

It is not a foregone conclusion that we need a carbon trading scheme or a carbon tax. Humphreys provides much food for thought on the nature of the optimal policy response and how it can fit in with broader... Read More

The demographic and medical realities of the twenty-first century mean that Medicare can no longer provide every citizen with ‘free’ access to all the new medicine. Without reform, healthcare in... Read More

Sinclair Davidson challenges the notion of ‘harmful’ international tax competition. He argues that in the sphere of taxation, as elsewhere, competition should be welcomed as a force for good, not stifled... Read More

At the heart of this new paper is the re-assertion of the need for a system of accommodation bonds. Hogan reiterates that a key factor limiting the supply of extra beds is the high cost of developing new... Read More

Australians are more prosperous than ever before, so the number of people needing government assistance should be falling. Yet the welfare state keeps getting bigger. The book explores this paradox. It... Read More

This paper identifies major structural flaws in our current taxation system and develops a set of radical proposals to put them right. The flaws it identifies lie in the fiscal relation between the Commonwealth... Read More

John Humphreys has a vision of how the tax and welfare systems could be refashioned to break through the dispiriting problems that currently bedevil them. It is for those who reject this vision to put... Read More

Sinclair Davidson explains why, in a sharply ‘progressive’ tax system like ours, tax cuts that appear to favour high earners more than low earners are not only ‘fair’ but are to a large extent... Read More

The question the government needs to ask is not whether it can do good through more spending, but is whether the relentless increase in the personal tax burden needed to finance all this spending is costing... Read More

Rather than establishing the case for even higher taxes on earnings, a careful analysis of OECD statistics shows what many Australian workers and businesses have long suspected; we are being squeezed much... Read More

Lauchlan Chipman questions a key principle that has long been embedded in our system of taxation and which most Australians probably accept as being self-evidently the ‘best’ and ‘fairest’ way... Read More

Norton’s review of the evidence does not indicate the existence of a population keen to pay more tax. The politicians know this, which is why the Coalition delivered limited tax cuts (as well as a lot... Read More

Davidson’s paper performs a service by exposing the absurdities of some of the claims that are being made about who pays what. Higher income earners are paying much more than their ‘fair share’ in... Read More

We are paying more tax than ever before. Australia’s tax burden is higher than in the United States and Japan, taxes on incomes are as high as in many European countries, and corporate taxation is higher... Read More

Terry Dwyer’s paper makes a compelling case for recognising family income sharing for tax purposes, and his arguments and proposals should be central to any future discussion of how to achieve a fairer... Read More

The importance of Geoffrey Walker’s paper is that it shows the price we are paying as a nation for government’s failure to keep its tax demands within reasonable bounds. It is bad enough that escalating... Read More

This report challenges prevailing definitions and measurements of poverty, and calls for an alternative strategy for poverty alleviation based on American-style welfare reform, lower taxation and job creation. Read More

Australia's universities are not preparing students adequately for their futures. Report author and higher education expert Andrew Norton argues that universities are failing students in several ways. Read More

Professor Kasper outlines the benefits of past migration. He points out that Australians can be justifiably proud of the successful integration of so many migrants into a decent society, a stable, free... Read More

Calls for big business to be more ‘ethical’ and ‘socially responsible’ have never been louder, nor more misguided. Samuel Gregg argues these calls come at a time ‘when the public understanding... Read More

Over the last two decades, the tax burden has shifted from taxpayers without to taxpayers with dependent children. While social security expenditure on welfare dependency has risen, spending on family... Read More

The welfare debate is bedeviled by the failure to distinguish behavioural from financial poverty. The minimum income available to families on welfare are commensurate with those of families on average... Read More

We see no evidence that the Australian resources industries are not competitive. Therefore if the RRT were a true resources rent tax, with the Government subsidising negative economic rents as well as... Read More

The Ord Scheme, indeed, offers ample ammunition for those who take the extreme view that responsibility is directly proportional to the taxing power. Certainly even those who hold a less extreme position... Read More

Throughout the world, the taxi industry attracts government regulation. Government agencies determine what vehicles may be used, who is eligible to receive a driver's oran owner's licence, where and how... Read More